Do Dogs Have a Sixth Sense?

I think dogs, amongst other animals, have a sensitivity to oncoming disaster that humans do not posses. Animals sensing storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, has all been well-documented.

I am amazed at the 'cancer-sniffing' dogs. These special animals can indeed sense illness in their masters, but can't always communicate it without the proper training. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/08/0820_040820_detectordogs.html

Given this evidence, I do believe that dogs and other pets do indeed sense these things, including the impending death of a master or mistress.

I have type II diabetes, with liver complications. The doctors don't know which came first, to be honest. My dog chooses to sleep close to my abdomen, or on my pillows, where my scent is noticed by him. I'm not dying by any means, but his natural empathy is a constant source of encouragement. Good dog....

Cav, I am definitely with you on this one. I know this also. My little mutt, Janie, waited for me to return home from grad school before she died. Truly. It seems to me that there was a movie about a dog, Grey Friars Bobby, that was based on a true story. I also believe that dogs smell fear in a human. You already know the story of my dad's dog, snowball.

I am concerned about doglover. Wonder where she is? Anyway, Cav. This story was of great interest to me:

http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk/story/story.html

Yes, the snowball story brought me to tears. I can't really post through that, so if I didn't respond, my apologies.

Ah, Cav. You are such a sensitive man. When the campground cat, Leo, came to our RV place to die, I cannot tell you how it shook me. There will be no more pets for me, I think.

Not to worry about not responding about snowball. It is my firm belief that dog felt an obligation to be with Daddy, somehow.

When we were kids, my sisters and I used to love to play the song, Old Shep, on the piano, and tear up. Aren't humans odd, though?

Humans are odd indeed Letty.

How did you do that, Cav. Wow! Talk about sixth sense. You knew what I was going to say before I said it. Now wait a minute. who's the witch here.

I think that dogs, and animals in general, are just more in tune with the five senses. You would be too, if you couldn't be entertained by reading, writing, and watching television.

Hey, CJ. Good point, but we were talking about a sixth sense here. One that isn't covered by the other five.

It was just a feeling...

Hmmm. Mystic intuition. Well, I'll say this. Things do happen in strange sequences, sometimes.

So far, all my predictions about folks who are ill on A2K have been spot on. (love that expression)

I agree with cjhsa. Dogs just pay attention, and they're not distracted by thinking. Plus their sense of smell is so much better than ours that it seems uncanny.

mornin', coluber. The uncanny part is the essence of this thread. I'm not trying to make something other worldly about any animals, I'm just wondering about that extra thing that some dogs seem to possess without benefit of training.

I'm giving this thread a bump and a grind because of the recent occurrences concerning the sixth sense of animals during the tsunami. ESP in humans may well be defined by that extra something that animals and people have in common--the ability to tune in to things because of heightened senses.

Letty, I find it amazing that no animal corpses have been found yet in the tsunami areas. From National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0104_050104_tsunami_animals.html#main

WOW! Cav. The part about that article that caught my eye was the fact that man has lost his sixth sense.

I think that man has been losing that sixth sense for a long time, as we become more goal-driven, and disconnected from the world around us. Think of what "being connected" means to us today, cell phones, pagers, e-mail, online chat, all of it unnatural, really. Helpful and fun, but not of the earth.

You right, Cav. If I recall correctly, the appendix was once a second stomach, and now is just a hazard to us. Man invents and then his inventions control him.

It's why I constantly promote hunting and fishing. I get grief for it, but I won't give up.